DescentBB

Hey guys, it's probably been asked a zillion times, but searching old posts didn't turn up what I was looking for.

Has anyone gotten, or heard of someone getting d1 working in XP? Or just have a good idea of how to do it?

I had heard that it was impossible, but then I heard a few succes stories and was wondering if anyone could point me to them. I can tell I'll want to use VDM sound (already did for Lemmings... heh), but past that I'm not sure.

Do I need to run from a command prompt, or a dos emulation program like dosbox? Does d1x work at all, or is there a certain version patch that works better than others? Just looking for any help before I maul my machine trying to get it to work.

Thanks a heap and long live descent

Steve / clone7

install D1, then get teh D1x version. Come to kali Descent server, plenty of help there.

well that helps the rest of us who don't have kali...

kali is 10$ for life.

This might help some. http://archives.descent.cx/win2k.html

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by CDN_Merlin:
install D1, then get teh D1x version. Come to kali Descent server, plenty of help there.</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Get the OpenGL version. That works fine in 2k and XP.

http://d1x.warpcore.org/

That site also has a link to D2x, which works fine in 2k and XP.

I tried the version from that site once and failed miserably in getting it working. There's a native Win32 version (two actually, 1.42 is claimed to have less bugs than 1.42 but I couldnb't tell the difference tbh) hosted in the Planet Descent patches page. You'll need at least version 1.4a of Descent 1 to use these and although a 1.5 patch exists it's best to patch to 1.4a first as this works around a ridiculous bug in the 1.5 patch which kills music after level 6.

I'm using version 1.43ogl and it works fairly well. Joystick feels slightly sluggish though.

I had heard that the opengl version was no good, but it looks like I will try it and see how it goes. I'll come on kali if I have problems and check back here.

Thanks guys

Steve / clone7

havent had any luck myself, thats why i play d3 now.

D1x 1.42 opengl or 1.43 opengl don't seem to like Radeons from what I've heard. I've also heard a fair share of people say they have problems with Nvidia as well but it works fine on my GF4.

Those of us that have gotten our joysticks to work have found that the sensetivity isn't quite how we've liked it but for the most part people seem not to be able to get their joysticks working at all.

I find the best way to get D1x working right with the joystick is install the game. Patch it, get the latest D1x you want to use (With 2k or XP it needs to be 1.42 or 1.43 ogl or mw) NOTE: 1.43mw looks more like regular descent at 320x240 and might run better then the ogl version depending. Make absolutely sure that you have your joystick setup and calibrated in the Gaming Controller at the Control Panel in Windows before you run D1 for the first time.

Then, go to your Descent directory and look for the D1x.ini file. Open that up in Notepad and put in this...(This is what mine looks like)

-pps 6
-shortpackets
-noredundancy
-playermessages
-maxfps 80
-msgcolorlevel 3
-nicefps
-fullscreen
-joypolled
-notitles
-missiondir D:/Games/Descent Series/Descent/levels
-dynamicsockets
-gl_mipmap
-cockpit 2
-gl_reticle 1

I suggest you keep everything as I have there cept for the mission dir path, change that to whatever you have. Feel free to change the fps or pps settings to whatever you prefer.

ok, run Descent...

Create a new pilot (It doesn't seem to like old ones) and make sure that you have "Joystick" checked off with the dot using the space bar before you even do any keyboard or joystick configuring. Always keep joystick checked and you should be able to setup the rest of your controls without any problems. Do all this before you fly around in a level for the first time to test everything out.

In the D1x options you can change your resolution. I usually stick to 640x480 in D1 but sometimes 800x600. Anything else is kind of overkill, but that is just me. Here you can also specify your Primary and Secondary cycling preferences and it also shows the mission dir path and smooth fps options already specified in your D1x.ini.

Thats what I did to get mine working properly in 2k and everything works fine in XP. I haven't messed with a clean install of XP and tried yet though. If you have multiple gaming controllers such as a gamepad that you use for other games make sure that it is disabled in the Gaming Controllers menu in Windows before running D1 as well.

Maka told me he had gotten D1x 1.40c working in the DOS emu layer of XP with sound, multiplayer and joystick but he got caught up in school and ended up reformatting the system he did that on, so he can't remember how he did it (Thats the story I heard, sounds like a bunch of BS to me, but oh well).

As far as Dosbox and glidos type DOS emus, I haven't once gotten them to run Descent or Descent II correctly. VDMsound does correct the detection of sound in D1x and passes that part, but then I get a...

Can't initialize Graphics error=10

Can't initialize Graphics error=10

Press any Key to Continue...

and when I press a key it just closes the window, so...

Hope some of this helps clone.

Dosbox runs D1 and D2...just really sluggishly.

D1x 1.43 OGL runs fine on my machine. My only problem is that it only likes my second hat switch instead of my primary one which I use the most. Atleast D2x works with it.

Wow Tyranny that really helped me out. Thats a lot of good info.

Glad to help. I've probably spent too much time getting those 2 old ass games (Those being D1/D2) to work properly since I've been using NT based operating systems anyways

Just a suggestion...set your FPS cap in the ini file and make it read only. Theres been a glitch in D1x since 1.40 where it won't save your framecap. It'll work until you exit the program. Once you run it again, its back to 80 by default.

Wow, thanks Tyr! That should help a lot. One thing, I am not sure what you mean by 'mw' as opposed to open gl?

Thanks,
Steve / clone7

oh yeah, do what MD said if you plan to change your FPS to anything other then 80fps in the .ini. After you've changed it save it and make it read-only.

The 'mw' version came with 1.43 and doesn't use opengl. So it looks grainy like D1 normally does.